Blaze of Memory - Psy Changeling Series - Book 07

Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There have been many releases of "next" books in series that I read over the past couple of weeks and in between books that I have received to review pre their release dates and my full time profession, I have been finding it very difficult to get to all my reading and reviewing. I quickly realised that the reading was becoming nothing more than a task to me and that I was not really enjoying the reads at all. I decided right then and there to slow things down significantly and to read something that I have wanted to for a while but was just not getting to. I immediately thought of the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh which I had not read in a while. I did not regret it for a second.

SUMMARY

Devros Santos is the Director of the Shine Foundation, an organisation of those who defected from the Psy race when they decided to go Silent. They are experiencing their own problems as the Forgotten are starting to develop skills that have previously been unseen in the Psy world, some of which are very dangerous to those around them. The Forgotten are therefore on the brink of a decision to join the Psy in their Silence in order to save those that have violent and destructive gifts. Dev does not know what lies ahead for the Forgotten but he knows that Silence is not the answer.

When Katya literally lands on his doorstep broken and battered she is a distraction which he does not want to deal with even if one does not take into consideration the fact that she is most likely a Psy spy. She has been tortured in the worst possible ways (by Ming le Bon) and cannot remember anything of her recent past life. Dev is very suspicious of Katya and despite the pull that he feels toward her, knows she could be a very real threat against the Forgotten and him, which suspicion is eerily correct as unbeknownst to her Katya has been programmed to kill Dev.

Dev however cannot ignore that Katya calls to him on a basic level and is warming the cold heart which he has been hiding behind a "wall" of metal. He is as cold as ice as a result of his own stormy past, his affinity to metal and his more recent gift of communication and the manipulation of machines. The two soon realise that their destinies are intertwined and that they cannot accept a future without each other. When Katya rebels against her programming to have Dev her brain is fried and she is as good as dead. Ultimately it is the unexpected gifts of the Forgotten that allows her another chance at a life with Dev.

In another part of the story, the violence of Psy within the net is increasing and the Psy are fracturing at an alarming pace. With some of the Councillors bent on world domination and some ignorant of the true state of events, the only thing that is certain is that the Psy are heading for trouble.

WHAT I LIKED

As with all the Psy-Changeling books I absolutely love the world created by Nalini Singh. In my view it is completely unique and is so interesting that I do not feel that I will ever get enough of it. There is intrigue and suspense in the Psy world and you never quite know who is plotting against whom. This book also has evokes very strong emotions as Katya deals with the ways in which she was tortured and the fact that she has no memory of her life before she was taken. I love that she is such a strong character despite her fragility and being "broken" and I must say strong female leads just make me like a book a bit more. The plot is interesting and well paced and I found myself reading in between work that I had to do, cooking, cleaning etc. I love the fact that despite the story essentially being about Dev and Katya, the back story is always there as the golden thread through all of the instalments to this series, being Silence and how the Psy are dealing with it. Dev was such a likeable character to me that I was very happy to see that he got a happy ending, which at some points in the story seemed impossible. Although this seems to be just another strong man meets weak woman and sweeps her off her feet romance, the setting of the story and the plot in which the love story takes place just refuses to have this book relegated to the likes of Mills & Boon and Harlequin Romance.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

As with the other instalments to the series this book is very lengthy and I feel that it could have benefited from some trimming at certain points. Overall this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.

SO WHAT'S THE VERDICT?

This book did exactly what I had wanted it to do, which is made me remember why I love reading in the first place. As bloggers we often get so caught up in the reading and reviewing that we begin losing track of why we started blogging in the first place, which is because we love reading and sharing our thoughts and views on what we read with others with their own thoughts and views on those books. But anyway, back to the book, which I give firm two thumbs up. I hope that you will all share your thoughts on the book with me.

WHAT'S NEXT

The next instalment in the Psy-Changeling series is Bonds of Justice, which I picked up immediately after this one. My review will follow shortly.

View all my reviews